Phillips 66 mulls new splitter at Texas refinery

Phillips 66 could soon build a new condensate splitter at its Sweeny refinery in Texas. The splitter would provide feedstock to run more downstream process units at full capacity.

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By DAN MURTAUGH

Bloomberg

Phillips 66 is considering building a condensate splitter at
its Sweeny refinery in Texas that could provide feedstock to run more downstream
units at full capacity.

The USs most valuable refiner by market capitalization
is conducting preliminary engineering on such a unit, Jim
Webster, Phillips 66s general manager for midstream,
told reporters during a tour of the refinery 60 miles (95 kilometers)
south of Houston.

The company hasnt decided whether or where it would
build a splitter, which separates ultra-light crude oil into
unfinished products that could be sold to refineries or
blenders or exported overseas. Sweeny is a possibility
because its close to South Texass Eagle Ford
shale formation, which produces mostly ultra-light oil.

Sweeny, which is distilling about 255,000 bpd of crude,
doesnt produce enough unfinished or intermediate
products to fill all of its secondary units such as fluid
catalytic crackers, refinery general manager Willie
Tempton Jr. said. Products from a splitter could go into
those units.

Texas has four refining centers in Port
Arthur, Houston, Texas City and Corpus Christi, where
refineries can easily sell unneeded intermediate products to
another plant where its a useful feedstock. Sweeny is relatively
isolated, making it more difficult to obtain intermediate feedstocks from outside, said
Chris Chandler, Phillips 66s general manager of natural
gas liquids.

Eagle Ford

The refinery is running about 60,000 to 70,000 bpd of mostly
Eagle Ford crude through its low-sulfur crude unit, and about
190,000 bpd of sour crude through its other distillation tower, Tempton said.

The company is expanding natural gas liquids and export
capabilities at the refinery. At the corner of NGL Road and
LPG Road inside the complex, workers are preparing the ground
for Phillips 66s first wholly-owned fractionator, which
by 2015 will be able to convert about 100,000 bpd of mixed
NGLs into ethane, propane, butane and natural gasoline.

The company is also upgrading docks 30 miles from the refinery in Freeport that it has
historically used to import crude and export refined
products. Phillips 66 by 2016 expects to be able to load at
36,000 bbl/hour of NGLs and refined oil products for export,
as well as loading crude on vessels to send to some of its
other refineries, Webster said.

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